news and events

Congratulations to Dr. Jen Nickelson! Her work in the area of community engagement has been selected for a premiere award by the UA Council on Community-Based Partnerships (CCBP). Her project, Health Lab, will be recognized as an Outstanding Faculty/Staff-Initiated Engagement Effort for 2017. The award includes recognition by the CCBP and funding support to aid in the continuation of her work.

She will be recognized at the Eleventh Annual Awards Luncheon at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, April 14, 2017, in the Bryant Conference Center Sellers Auditorium. The SCOPE Showcase will begin at 8:30 a.m. and poster display exhibition will begin at 10:00 a.m. The Showcase and posters will feature engagement projects involving UA and community partners.

The University of Alabama Jr High and High School Athletic Training Student Aide Camp Staff invites you to learn about athletic training from the athletic trainers who provide medical care to some of the best athletes in the nation! The camp is designed for jr high and high school students who are interested in gaining athletic training knowledge and skills. The program will address current concepts in athletic training and is taught by certified athletic trainers who work at The University of Alabama.

March is National Athletic Training Month and each year the Department of Health Science is able to bring in a nationally-recognized research scholar to present to our students, athletic trainers, other health care professionals, and community members. This year, Darin Padua will be coming to Tuscaloosa. Dr. Padua is an ACL injury prevention and rehabilitation researcher. We are thankful for the support of the Department and the College to bring in a speaker each year! Dr. Padua will be in Tuscaloosa March 26 - 28 and will be giving 3 lectures, in addition to individual meetings.

On Monday, March 27, Dr. Padua will be presenting his talk “Evidence Based Recommendations for ACL Injury Presentation - An Overview of the Upcoming NATA Position Statement” at the Child Development Research Center at 6:30 pm. This presentation is meant for a broader audience, including athletic trainers, athletics administrators, parents, and other health care professionals. This presentation will focus on providing some background on ACL injury and then focus on the recommendations that will be coming forth in the upcoming NATA position statement that he has helped to chair. The presentation will stress the need to implement simple solutions to prevent ACL injury, which requires support at all levels of athletics.

On Tuesday, March 28 from 7:30-9:00am, he will be presenting “A Systematic Approach for Return to Sport Testing and Decision Making Following ACL Injuries.” This presentation, which is only open to UA AT program students, staff, and faculty, will highlight the high rate of secondary ACL / knee injury that occurs when athletes return to sport following ACL injury / reconstruction. We will then explore some of the factors that have been shown to contribute to the elevated secondary injury rates. Following we will explore a systematic and multi-component approach for return to sport testing that involves an integrated testing protocol (stability, strength, power, biomechanics, function, and perception) combined with training load monitoring and management strategies. While the talk is structured around ACL injury the same concepts apply to any type of injury in my opinion and help us to think through how we might better consider return to sport testing and management for time-loss injuries.